What Trump's Presidency Means For Illegal Immigrants And Immigration To The U.S.

Donald Trump's extraordinary election as president of the United States defied all odds and surprised even some of his most ardent supporters. Those concerned with immigration are struggling to assess the consequences that will follow based on his platform and Republican control of both the Senate and the House.

Donald Trump winning the U.S. Presidential election will now try to implement his immigration policy. It includes deporting 11 million unlawfully present immigrants, building a wall on the Mexican border to be paid by Mexico and blocking certain Muslims from terrorism-related areas from immigrating to the United States.

For starters, Trump has promised to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Some immigration leaders have voiced fears of raids on illegal immigrants, possible abuse of process and increased detentions. Considering that illegal immigrants in America are entitled to due process, significant resources to hire more judges and prosecutors will be needed. Even then, courts will be clogged with immigration cases for years to implement such a policy. In short that's a tall mountain to climb, but Trump has steadfastly advanced the idea.

Once he assumes office, President Trump is likely to cancel President Obama's executive orders establishing the DACA and DAPA programs, which would have granted undocumented immigrants temporary reprieves from removal and given long-term resident illegal immigrants work permits. The personal information of illegal immigrants collected for DACA benefits could now be used against those who registered under the program. Similarly, the current policy of prosecutorial discretion that shelters some unlawful immigrants by focusing on violent criminal deportations as a priority, could be cancelled by a new Trump executive order.

Clearly Trump will want to stem the tide of Syrian refugees coming to the United States. He spoke in particular about blocking Muslim immigration from the areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies. That's likely to come in the early days of Trump's presidency.

Trump's announced plan for reforming immigration, that is to say, building a wall along the southern border and having Mexico pay for it, tripling the number of immigration and customs agents to clamp down on border security, cancelling birthright citizenship and imposing e-verify on employers hiring foreign workers, can all be expected to be part of his changes in immigration policy. Further, we can expect that he will make it harder for foreign students to study in the U.S. by ending subsidies and lowered in-state tuition fees for those who are currently eligible for them.

The extent of such changes in policy will depend, however, on what personnel he appoints to implement it. Nonetheless, my earlier article assessing Trump's immigration plan pointed out why his ideas about deportations and building a wall are simply not practical.

In the area of employment, some immigration attorneys expect difficulty in expanding the H-1B visa program not only because of Trump, but also because Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican Senator from Iowa, will be leading opponents of easing H1B work visa requirements by Congress. Instead of expanding who may come in under the H-1B program, which is particularly needed by many high tech companies in Silicon Valley, it is more likely that Congress will increase the prevailing wage required and introduce an American-worker-first element.

However, immigration initiatives are likely to be somewhat delayed by higher priority matters, such as eliminating Obamacare, tax reforms and the wars overseas. In the end, this may be the illegal immigrant community's best hope in the year ahead.